10.5061/DRYAD.SV67KD4
Ravenscraft, Alison
Stanford University
Berry, Michelle
Stanford University
Hammer, Tobin
University of Colorado Boulder
Peay, Kabir
Stanford University
Boggs, Carol
University of South Carolina
Data from: Structure and function of the bacterial and fungal gut
microbiota of Neotropical butterflies
Dryad
dataset
2018
feeding guild
Symbiosis
ITS
Catabolism
Holocene
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
DGE-1147470
2018-11-08T18:03:12Z
2018-11-08T18:03:12Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1346
4502085 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The relationship between animals and their gut flora is simultaneously one
of the most common and most complex symbioses on Earth. Despite its
ubiquity, our understanding of this invisible but often critical
relationship is still in its infancy. We employed adult Neotropical
butterflies as a study system to ask three questions: First, how does gut
microbial community composition vary across host individuals, species and
dietary guilds? Second, how do gut microbiota compare to food microbial
communities? Finally, are gut flora functionally adapted to the chemical
makeup of host foods? To answer these questions we captured nearly 300
Costa Rican butterflies representing over 50 species, six families and two
feeding guilds: frugivores and nectivores. We characterized bacteria and
fungi in guts, wild fruits and wild nectars via amplicon sequencing and
assessed the catabolic abilities of the gut microbiota via culture-based
assays. Gut communities were distinct from food communities, suggesting
that the gut environment acts as a filter on potential colonists.
Nevertheless, gut flora varied widely among individuals and species. On
average, a pair of butterflies shared 21% of their bacterial species and
6% of their fungi. Host species explained 25-30% of variation in microbial
communities while host diet explained 4%, suggesting that non-dietary
aspects of host biology play a large role in structuring the butterfly gut
flora. Much of the variation between species correlated with host
phylogeny. Host diet was related to gut microbial function: compared to
frugivores, nectivores’ gut flora exhibited increased catabolism of sugars
and sugar alcohols and decreased catabolism of amino acids, carboxylic
acids and dicarboxylic acids. Since fermented juice contains more amino
acids and less sugar than nectar, it appears that host diet filters the
gut flora by favoring microbes that digest compounds abundant in foods. By
quantifying the degree to which gut communities vary among host
individuals, species and dietary guilds and evaluating how gut microbial
composition and catabolic potential are related to host diet, this study
highlights the linkages between structure and function in one of the most
complex and ubiquitous symbioses in the animal kingdom.
Butterfly microbiome and community metabolic profiling data (open
format)Butterfly metadata, microbiome data (16s and ITS OTU tables;
microbial taxonomic identifications; and representative fasta sequences
for the OTUs) and gut community metabolic profiling (Biolog assay) data in
.csv and .txt formats. See README file for additional information about
individual files.Open_format_data.zipR script and R-formatted dataThis
directory includes an R script that generates the figures from the
associated manuscript, as well as butterfly metadata, microbiome (16s and
ITS) data, and community metabolic profiling data in the .Rdata format.
See the README for more information about individual files.R_files.zip
La Selva Biological Station
Costa Rica